Labyrinthine Orb Weaver Spiders have distinctive webs to the trained eye. They create a double web and use their surroundings to camouflage themselves.

The web of this spider is more like a starburst, rather than a typical orb, making it unique and easy to identify. It is a two-part web: a more typical orb web in front of a tangled mess of a retreat web.
The Labyrinthine Orb Weaver Spider will conceal itself in the retreat web using dried leaves or other debris to help camouflage it. The spider will sit, legs tucked under and around itself in a tight spot, like a curled leaf, while waiting for insects to become ensnared in the larger web.

Once a prey item is snagged in the web, the Labyrinthine Orb Weaver Spider will go to it, bite it to immobilize it with venom and then proceed to wrap the prey in a cocoon of spider silk where it will remain until the spider wants to consume it.

Adults are active from early spring to late fall. Males stop building and maintaining webs once they mature. Reproduction occurs in rainy spring. Females wrap multiple egg sacs in silk, stranding them together like a string of pearls. This strand of egg sacs is then attached to her web and disguised at debris by putting twigs and leaves around it. She will guard her egg sacs until the spiderlings hatch and jump off her web to start lives of their own.

Basic Information

Common Name: Labyrinthine Orb Weaver Spider

Other Name(s): Labyrinth Orbweaver

Scientific Name:Metepeira labyrinthia

Category: Spider

General Identification

Size (Adult; Length): 5mm to 10mm (0.20in to 0.39in)

Identifying Colors: brown; black; tan; gray; orange

Additional Descriptors: biting, venomous

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom:Animalia

Phylum:Arthropoda

Class:Arachnida

Order:Araneae

Family:Araneidae

Genus:Metepeira

Species:labyrinthia

Spider Anatomy (Typical)

1

Legs: Spiders have four pairs of legs and these are attached to the cephalothorax.

2

Pedipalps: Small appendages near the mouth used as taste and smell organs.

3

Cephalothorax: Contains eyes, head, mouthparts, and legs.

4

Abdomen: Contains various organs related to digestion, reproduction, and web-making.

5

Spinnerets: Used in the production of spider silk for fashioning webs or catching prey.

NOTE: Unlike insects, spiders have both an endoskeleton (internal) and exoskeleton (external).

Territorial Reach (A-to-Z)

Note: An insect's reach is not limited by lines drawn on a map and therefore species may appear in areas, regions and/or states beyond those listed below as they are driven by environmental factors (such as climate change), available food supplies and mating patterns. Grayed-out selections below indicate that the subject in question has not been reported in that particular territory. U.S. states and Canadian provinces / territories are clickable to their respective bug listings.

The map below showcases (in red) the states and territories of North America where the Labyrinthine Orb Weaver Spider may be found (but is not limited to). This sort of data can be useful in seeing concentrations of a particular species over the continent as well as revealing possible migratory patterns over a species' given lifespan. Some species are naturally confined by environment, weather, mating habits, food resources and the like while others see widespread expansion across most, or all, of North America.